Two local entrepreneurs team up for Casino Revolution

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady wants the City of Philadelphia to bid on a casino license. Brady proposes to build the casino on the city-owned site of the former Food Distribution Center on Packer Avenue at the foot of the Walt Whitman Bridge in South Philly.

Jennifer Lin

Inquirer Staff Writer

The investors behind Casino Revolution, the third casino proposal in South Philadelphia, have pledged to be up and running with a casino in six months time. The partners, called PHL Local Gaming, control a 24-acre footprint. An existing building that is currently owned by Procacci Brothers food wholesalers could be converted immediately into a gaming hall, said Joseph Canfora, chief executive of Merit Management, which would operate the casino. The casino also could easily grow from 2,400 slots to 5,000 slots, he said. “Our design affords us to expand in response to market demand,” Canfora said. Some of the highlights of their testimony:

Project would be a mile from nearest residential neighborhood in South Philadelphia’s Whitman Plaza.

Existing road network can handle casino traffic.

Project, with a hotel tower that Canfora called “iconic," could spur development in the Front and Pattison corridor.

The two men leading the PHL Local Gaming in South Philadelphia call themselves self-made Philadelphians who started with “zilch” to build multi-million-dollar family fortunes: Joseph Procacci from wholesale foods; Walter Lomax from medical services. “They are legendary, serial Philadelphia entrepeneurs,” said Robert Borghese, an executive for PHL Local Gaming. They reflect the “rich, racial, ethnic and cultural diversity of our community.”